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An Anti-War Constitutional Amendment

In this third short anti-war essay this week I would like to propose a Constitutional Amendment. I can already hear many of my friends laughing at me since the US Empire does not follow much of the Constitution we have and I want to add to it! Laugh it up jokers, laugh it up.

My proposed amendment is not even new. It was first proposed by General Smedley Butler of “War is a Racket” fame sometime in the late 1930s as the war in Europe was heating up. In essence we have an amendment restricting all military forces to a defensive posture rather than the present world wide posture.

Gen. Butler’s amendment:

I PROPOSE an Amendment for Peace, to the Constitution of the United States:

1. The removal of the members of the land armed forces from within the continental limits of the United States and the Panama Canal Zone for any cause whatsoever is prohibited.

2. The vessels of the United States Navy, or of the other branches of the armed service, are hereby prohibited from steaming, for any reason whatsoever except on an errand of mercy, more than five hundred miles from our coast.

3. Aircraft of the Army, Navy and Marine Corps are hereby prohibited from flying, for any reason whatsoever, more than seven hundred and fifty miles beyond the coast of the United States.

Butler claimed that such an amendment “would be an absolute guarantee to the women of America that their loved ones never would be sent overseas to be needlessly shot down in European or Asiatic or African wars that are of no concern to our people.”

He claimed that if the home defenses were kept strong enough to deter invasion and we were restricted to only defensive measures then there would be zero chance of war. He claimed:

In the first place, the United States is in no danger whatever of military invasion. Even the Navy and Army Departments, which are always preparing for war, and the State Department, which is always talking about peace but thinking about war, agree on that. By reason of our geographical position, it is all but impossible for any foreign power to muster, transport and land sufficient troops on our shores for a successful invasion.

He went on to say that even if the entire world got together to invade a non-interventionist USA that they still would fail as every single man and boy in the US would be armed defenders of our land. The invasion costs would be just too prohibitive. And he said all this before the development of 4th generation war theory to boot.

There is one more thing. General Butler did not know we would become a major nuclear superpower. What are the chances of Russia mounting an invasion of the nuclear armed USA? Zero? That is what I thought you would say.

This is an interesting idea that deserves some thought. What are the chances of enactment? Why damn near none of course but it would make wonderful debate material with the war mongering neo-cons would it not?

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2 thoughts on “An Anti-War Constitutional Amendment”

Interesting comment. I could not agree more. But the key quote is “war is a racket”…..
Exactly so!
Moreover time has moved on and Russia is threatening thermo nuclear war if US attacks Iran.
Posturing? Maybe.
Deliberate? Worth considering
But something is definitely going on.
And the 1% want to depopulate the world….